It is desirable for a number of different office implements to be kept within easy reach of an office worker upon a desk top. For example, many office workers like to have at hand a dispenser of tape having pressure-sensitive adhesive on one side. Such tape, which is often of transparent cellophane material, is usually purchased in annular rolls which are wound in spiral fashion. It is conventional for tape rolls of this kind to be mounted in dispensers which have an axial hub about which the tape roll core rotates freely, and a retaining surface to which the free end of the tape adheres. Adjacent the retaining surface there is usually provided a serrated knife edge for severing the tape after a desired length has been pulled off the roll. Conventionally, tape dispensers of this kind store the tape roll in an upright position. Such tape dispensers do not achieve a low profile, because the height of the dispenser above the desk top is generally of the same order of magnitude as the diameter of a full roll of tape.
Other accessories which are commonly found on desk tops include a storage bin for unbound sheets of writing paper arranged in a stack, and other storage bins for such items as pens and pencils, paper clips, rubber bands, and the like. Paper clips are commonly made of steel wire, and so have ferromagnetic properties which lend themselves to the use of a permanent magnet located at the top of a paper clip dispenser, for the purpose of pulling the paper clips up to the mouth of the dispenser.
Pen and pencil holders are conventionally made in the form of an upright cylindrical cup. This configuration has the advantage of making it easy to grasp one of the pens or pencils and remove it from the cup, but again this type of desk accessory does not have a low profile, since the height of the cup is normally over half the length of the pens and pencils stored therein. Many people consider that, for reasons of style and esthetic appeal, desk accessories should have as low a profile as possible.
Another accessory commonly found on desks is a file of the flip-card type, which are generally used to store such information as names, addresses and telephone numbers of customers or other people who are frequently contacted. Another common desk accessory is a daily calendar of the kind which has one or two pages for each day, these pages being bound upon two standing loops of metal which permit the pages to be turned at the beginning of a new day. Many individuals smoke cigars or cigarettes during the working day, and for such people it is essential to have an ash tray close at hand. The presence of all these various forms of desk accessories on the same desk at the same time contributes to clutter, which is considered undesirable both from a visual standpoint and from the standpoint of working efficiency.